New Website Offers Window Into Daily Life in Civil War Tennessee (Digitized Images and More)

Little-known stories of how Civil War-era Tennesseans lived their lives away from the battlefield are now accessible on the Shades of Gray and Blue website, which includes digitized images of historical art and other cultural material.

The unique educational website, which includes contributions from scholars across Tennessee, was created through a collaborative effort of Vanderbilt Libraries, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) Walker Library and the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU. Major funding was provided by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area with additional support from Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State universities as well as Anode Inc.

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The idea for Shades of Gray and Blue started years ago when Vanderbilt Libraries was part of a state-wide consortium with MTSU, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the University of Tennessee and others to digitize images related to the growth of democracy in Tennessee. “We enjoyed working on that project, called ‘Volunteer Voices,’ but realized there was a wealth of material related to art and culture that was not able to be included,” Walker said. “Susan and I met with Carroll

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.